Natural gas and crude oil are the sourced of the vast majority of fuels used today. These sources are obtained from limited underground reserves. As the earth's natural gas and crude oil supplies are depleted, the world-wide demand for energy is simultaneously growing. Over the next ten years, depletion of the remaining world's easily accessible natural gas and crude oil reserves will lead to a significant increase in cost for fuel obtained from them.
Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and very often some carbon dioxide. It is commonly used as an intermediate in creating synthetic natural gas, synthetic petroleum, and products to drive gas turbines. Production methods include the gasification of carbon-containing biomass such as, for example, gasification of agricultural waste and municipal waste. However, syngas has less than half the energy density of natural gas and the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide created are considered harmful contributors to global warming.
The search to find processes that can efficiently convert renewable materials to fuels suitable for transportation, generation of electricity, and/or heating is an important factor in meeting the ever-increasing demand for energy. Methods and systems for efficiently converting carbon-based feedstocks such as biomass into gaseous fuel with energy densities on the order at least that of natural gas are needed. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides various advantages over the prior art.